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Chief Justice rises to the supreme challenge

As Britain sets out on a journey of judicial reform, New Zealand has reached its destination

by Ian Caplin

September 14 2004, 1:00am, The Times

THIS week plans to create a supreme court for the United Kingdom come back before the House of Lords. Peers are split over its merits as well as timing. But the issue is not just a local difficulty. New Zealand has trodden a similar path, creating its own Supreme Court on January 1 this year.

Dame Sian Elias, Chief Justice of the New Zealand Supreme Court, which started to hear cases in July, says the move — which meant cutting ties with London and the Privy Council as the final court of appeal — had been discussed for 100 years. But there had been reluctance to cut the ties for “sentimental” reasons. “It’s the final court of appeal,” she says. “It’s the aspiration of one common law…